Clan Shimamori
Clan Shimamori is a young clan from Honshu, founded in 726 A.S. at the behest of the Emperor by granting the clan rights to his distant relative. Hitoshi Shimamori happened to be a son of a nephew of then-Emperor. Usually, a distant relative could not expect any benefits from the status except some more elevated status among minor nobility and a small patch of land, de facto equalising him to that very minor nobility. Most of times the imperial dynasty would shun their distant relatives in case any of those committed something dishonourable, making it easier to renounce any relation. In case of achievements, however, the Emperor could easily underline the relation to add the feats of distant relatives to those of his own lineage. This was the case for Hitoshi who in 726 A.S. served as a captain on “Bunkyoku-maru”, Takeda-class cruiser which fell into a trap of Blood Dragons in Hokkaido system. Ship’s fighter escort was eliminated in a surprise attack and the ship left prone to the bomber swarm and a gunboat. In desperation, Hitoshi in lack of options of victory decided to ram hostile gunboat. When the crew and the captain were already shouting “Tennou heika banzai!” (//ten thousand years [of life] to the Emperor!) and the ship was ramming Dragons’ gunboat, a relief patrol of imperial navy arrived and turned the tide of battle. Badly damaged yet still operational, “Bunkyoku-maru” was towed to Sapporo Station for emergency repairs and later on returned to New Tokyo.
Coat of Arms of Shimamori clan
Shimamori Hitoshi alongside 75% of the crew survived the battle and were commended to awards for bravery “in the face of imminent death”. While such incidents happened relatively frequently, it was the involvement of a relative to the imperial dynasty that drew attention of the media. The “banzai” shout was well recorded by the arriving relief party, and the video footage was readily available from both the “Bunkyoku-maru” and the assistance wing. The media spinned the news to make appear more significant to to use to praise the virtues of imperial bloodline, which were manifested strongly even in distant relatives. Overnight, a humble captain of a border cruiser became a national “fad hero” for a few weeks, and was awarded a fief and the right to own clan alongshide the title of "koshaku" (//marquess) by the Emperor who used the publicity to his own means. Thus, clan Shimamori was born. The clan’s coat of arms was chosen to befit its birth - a while blossoming lotus flower under a torii gate, symbolising the pure birth of a new clan under the auspices of the divine stewardship of the Emperor.
Nowadays, the clan does not has a tangible impact on Kusarian politics that under imperial system is already devoid of strong feudal vassals of old Shogunate system. The positions of the clan grew even weaker after a brief republican period and subsequent reformation of the Empire in which nobility could participate in the parliament but did not really have influence outside of it. Clan Shimamori still has a familial fief on planet Honshu and a few space ships, including the flagship “Zuiryu”, previously “Bunkyoku-maru”, under imperial grants to be recognised in local politics.
Early Years
Shimamori Masahito was born on 7th July, 780 A.S. in the family of Shinnosuke and Mei Shimamori, a koshaku of the Kusarian Empire and a daughter of the ex-governor of planet Honshu. The birth befell on Kusarian holiday of old - tanabata - and the parents, who previously experienced two stillborns, took it as a good sign and rejoiced upon bringing into the world a healthy boy, wishing him wellness and fortune in the days to come as the tradition required. At that time the parents of Masahito were quite old, 50 and 44, and considered a healthy offspring a gift from the gods, their miracle. Besides, it was a male offspring and a legal successor to the clan graciously given to the family 74 years ago by the Emperor himself. Therefore, it was only logical they did not spare efforts and resources at his upbringing and education.
A scion to Shimamori imperial clan, Masahito was taught to fit the role of a relative to the imperial dynasty. Despite pragmatic realisation of their insignificance in the grand politics of the House, Masahito’s parents treated their position very seriously and tough their only child the complexity of traditions of Kusarian nobility and imperial dynasty, the intricacies of politics and diplomacy, and of course, warfare. At the same time, his parents understood too well that adherence only to age-old traditions without the support of assets and power would play a cruel joke with the future koshaku. To that end, in his teens Masahito did a ryugaku (//studies abroad) in all three Houses for better understanding of foreign ideas and way of life, as well as language training. Acquaintance with foreign ideas introduced more liberalism to generally conservative Kusarian nobility and shifted the political stance of Shimamori Masahito closer to moderate.
Education
In 798-802 Masahito studied in Shintodai (//New Tokyo University), majoring in international relations. The invasion of the Rheinland Fleet into New Tokyo and the decimation of Kusarian defenders in 800 A.S. shook young koshaku who on seeing the worries of his classmates and other common people became convinced of preference of peace to war as a tool in international relations. Upon graduation, Masahito enrolled in MA and subsequently in the Ph.D programme. Hakushikatei (//Ph.D.) was obtained in 809 for the paper regarding “Inward Perfection Strategy of Kusari: progress in abstaining”. During the time of hakushikatei, Masahito completed intensive course on space combat as a capital ship commander to be able later on to utilise his clan vessels more effectively. However, he never truly enrolled with the navy preferring books to sword, and intelligentsia to military nobility.
Tau War and Assuming the title
The war with Bretonia that began in 813 caught Masahito off-guard who believed that a large-scale conflict between two Houses was illogical and impossible, despite his father having predicted such a development. Shimamori Shinnosuke was summoned to serve on “Zuiryu” as a part of the invasion fleet, leaving the affairs of managing the clan to his son. Masahito, who just got married and had his first child refused to volunteer in the military, condemning the war on public channels. Not being a koshaku yet, his points were met on deaf ears among the public instigated by the media to believe in the manifested victory of Kusari. The initial success of Kusari discouraged Masahito to engage in public debate as to the mass euphoria over winning grew stronger. It all changed in 816 when his father was killed in a mine explosion in Tau 31 system. The grim news reminded Masahito of the grim reality of war. When most other Kusarian warrior-nobility would be proud of their relative giving away his life for the Emperor and enjoy finally assuming the title, Masahito as the only child who had been cherished as a “personal miracle” was stricken over the death of his beloved father and took no pleasure in becoming koshaku Shimamori. “Zuiryu” was damaged and returned to Honshu for repairs. Combined with the lack of formal military training of Masahito and the damage inflicted to the ship, koshaku was not summoned to war but remained on Honshu throughout the remaining clashes with Bretonians.
Gallic Advance
When the Kingdom of Gallia jumped into the fray in 817, the public of Kusari was still convinced of victory being within the grasp of the Empire. The first big battles with the new adversary, however, shook the citizenry as the gaijin eliminated the Tau fleet in a few confident victories. As Emperor’s support started to dwindle and Emperor being cut off in Taus alongside high-ranking officials, koshaku Shimamori’s rhetorics got some supporters on his home planet and made Masahito more popular among the locals. The chaos that ensued the end of war brought him even more popularity and solidified his reputation of a “progressive nobleman”. This was hardly relevant, however, as the republican puppet regime took power, rendering the nobility of old irrelevant in politics and causing a civil war.
Civil War
Throughout the civil war, koshaku Shimamori was advocating for finding a diplomatic solution to the crisis. However, his position of nobility on pro-republican Honshu was not favoured by the local liberals favouring republicans, and his anti-war sentiment did not resonate with the local pro-imperial conservatives. Realising that he also had to preserve his clan fief as his private property in absence of recognition of nobility within the republic, Masahito leased his clan flagship “Zuiryu” to Honshu Defence fleet to upkeep the ship itself and to deter unnecessary questions regarding clan’s allegiance. He also from time to time participated in public debates about the conflict, representing moderate nobility that agreed with concessions to the republicans to liberalise the political system. At this time, Shimamori Masahito began to develop his ideas of “inward development” and shared them with the local moderates, forming a small circle of supporters of his ideology. Some of those supporters decided to join the clan and thus strengthen the idea. The rest of the civil war for koshaku Shimamori passed in academic debates and development of the idea of “inward development” with sporadic calls upon to seek common grounds with the imperials.
End of Civil War
The end of the Civil War was rejoiced by the populace and by koshaku Shimamori as well. He rejoiced that diplomacy won over the continuation of the internal conflict and that the public received a democratic parliament to have a voice in governing the country. He also received back the recognition as of nobility as the imperial system was restored without people actually objecting due to the republic being associated with the Gallic puppet regime. “Zuiryu” was returned into the clan’s possession and the fief once again was not an object of ideological discussion. Finally enjoying peace, koshaku Shimamori returned to his academic endeavours and public work as well as the development of the clan.
The fall of the Kingdom of Gallia marked the end of the puppeteers and indicated unlikelihood of another large conflict in Taus in the nearest future now that Gallia is preoccupied with its own re-organisation and Bretonia is busy restoring what could be saved from the invasion. This gave Kusari a lot of time to overcome the struggles of the lost war and subsequent old war and a good field for koshaku Shimamori to develop and popularise his ideas of peaceful development.
Invasion of Gallia and Post-war Developments
It was a shock for Masahito when Kusari in 827 decided to start an offensive war against now the Confederacy of Gallia. Not only now Kusari in a similar fashion to 813 was an aggressor, it also did not care to explain to its citizenry the reason for this war and why the sons and daughters of Kusari would be going to spill their blood. Still weakened from two external wars and one internal, Kusari was recklessly diving into another war, yet again facing the risks of plunging into instability. This war proves that the Reformed Empire of Kusari did not really reform ideologically and still remains a warmonger it used to be 14 years ago. Neither democratic representation nor lessons of war could change the Kusarian establishment after all. And fighting against the Confederacy, including the ex-Council republicans who were fighting the Gallic royal fleet and were the ones who eventually toppled the king.
Greatly displeased with the actions of Kusarian leadership, Shimamori returned to his anti-war rhetoric but now also decided to have a more active involvement in the diplomatic affairs by attempting to organise impromptu diplomatic negotiations and rallying the support for such an initiative. The diplomatic initiative did not, however, bring any results, the marquess mostly criticising the actions of the government on media channels and calling for peace. The war did not go as planned by the military command of Kusari and was brought to a stalemate by the end of 827 A.S. With no illusions regarding the possible outcome of the war and high losses on both sides, the Houses of Kusari and Gallia made peace, Tau 23 and Tau 53 recognised as the sphere of influence of the Empire of Kusari. Shimamori welcomed the end of the war, although the gains were incomparable to losses in his opinion.
Remaining critical of the aggressive policy, Shimamori called upon all stakeholders to focus on the domestic affairs of Kusari and to bring upon promised prosperity for the people by developing infrastructure and business appeal of the Empire. With an idea to practice what one preached, Shimamori launched a few projects and initiatives aimed at the peaceful development of his native world of Honshu, mostly in the field of finances, education, and culture, as well as "Himawari" foundation for the support and re-integration of marginal elements of Kusari populace back into society. The Clan also undertook efforts to explore and colonise a new system for the Empire with tentative success in the newly discovered system of Chubu.
Statehood Period
Following the war, the rhetoric of Shimamori towards the government changed to rendering maximum support in attempts to promote maximum harmony and stability within Kusari. The dedication of the Clan to peaceful development and promotion of the Empire was recognised and Marquess Shimamori was appointed as a Lord Speaker of the Upper Chamber of the Imperial Diet.
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